Creation in the zoo reported in Associated Press, published online in Yahoo News, 8 June 2005. The Tulsa Zoo has been putting up displays showing religious and cultural significance of animals, such as a statue of the Hindu elephant god and a marble globe inscribed with an American Indian saying: "The earth is our mother. The sky is our father." Dan Hicks, a local resident noticed this and asked the zoo's management to put up a display depicting the Biblical account of creation. "It's a matter of fairness," he said, "To not include the creationist view would be discrimination." Hicks' request was supported by a petition signed by hundreds of people. After a packed public meeting, the Tulsa Park and Recreation Board voted 3-1 in favour of the Biblical creation display. Kathleen Buck-Miser, a Tulsa Zoo exhibit curator was not happy about the decision, and commented: "I do not like the idea of scripture at the zoo".

Editorial comment: We suspect that what Kathleen Buck-Miser really doesn't like is Christian Scripture at the zoo. Unless she and her colleagues objected to the Hindu elephant god and the Indian mother earth sculpture they are guilty of a common form of hypocrisy that allows any religious belief except Christianity.

We commend Dan Hicks for wanting to defend and promote Biblical truth, but we must be very careful how we use modern laws about "equality" to get creation promoted. Such laws are based on the claim that all religious beliefs are equally valid. This belief is based on a false assumption that religion is just one expression of a culture. The truth is that all culture is based on religion. This is why western European cultures, which are built on Christianity, have a strong scientific component and Indian (from India or North America) cultures do not, even though Indians are just as intelligent and resourceful as Europeans. A scientific culture depends on the belief that the world is ordered and the order can be known. At its roots that belief is traceable to the Christian statement that the creation is under the control of a reliable, truthful and good God, who does not deceive people, is not capricious and His nature is seen in His creation (see Romans 1:20). (Ref. religion, culture, foundations)